RESEARCH ON: post-war tourist attraction, current site of Jersey Heritage and living history.

ELIZABETH CASTLE INFOMATION

https://www.jerseyheritage.org/visit/places-to-visit/elizabeth-castle/

The castle is located on a tidal island within the parish of Saint Helier, Jersey. You are able to reach the castle by walking along the causeway or by taking the amphibious Castle Ferry. The castle is a 15-acre fortress that gave refuge to King Charles II during the English Civil War. It also has many historical aspects dating from; including the English Civil War, the German Occupation in World War 11. The other past of the site is, The Hermitage, where Saint Helier is thought to have lived around 550 A.D.

The spot where Elizabeth Castle is located, the Upper Ward or Mount, was a religious priory from 1155 until the late 16th century. The Islet, as it is known, is half a mile out to sea and is connected to mainland Jersey at low tide by a causeway. So, for seven out of every 12 hours it can only be reached by boat.

TOURIST ATTRACTION ELIZABETH CASTLE:

Elizabeth Castle is now managed by Jersey Heritage as an act to the public service, including as a tourist attraction. At Elizabeth Castle, as well as exploring the site and its history, you can see regular musketry demonstrations and on some weekends there are live recreations of the garrison of 1781 – the time of the battle of Jersey – when historical Interpreters give displays of musket and cannon firing and civilian life.

SYNOPSIS:

The short film we will be producing at Elizabeth Castle will be about the post historic events and the tourist attractions. The short film will include pictures of the main historic parts such as the; canons, the structure of the castle, and the main outside area (the layout). This short film is to show the evolution of the castle and how it once gave refuge to King Charles II and has now become open to the public and marked as one of the most historic elements on the island.

PRICING:

MOODBOARD:

CRITIQUE:

This project overall has been the best I’ve created. The whole process of taking the images, editing, and then creating a zine showed me all the work that goes into creating something like this. By going to St.Malo it created a new area for new images and a different lifestyle and culture than Jersey which meant I was able to take images I would usually be able to take. I am delighted by the way the zine looked in its finally copy, and impressed with how the layout turned out. Overall I conclude that the images worked really well together and how well the quality of these images displayed on print. Regarding the layout I am satisfied that I separated the two locations by adding the landscape image between, it created this sense of a storyline in my zine with the travel between two locations. However to make this zine better in the future I will perhaps add text next to my images to describe what is going on and what they represent, in this nostalgia project.

It is a French science fiction film made in 1962, directed by Chris Marker. It is put together by nearly just still photos and audio, where a story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel is told in French. It is monochrome and 28 minutes long, winning the Prix Jean Vigo for short film.

It is cleverly constructed because it uses dramatic black and white images to tell the story. It is inspiring to know that a film can be created from still images and not only video, using audio as the storyteller. We will take into consideration this strategy for filmmaking with our film. We will try to get some dramatic shots that tell the story we want to tell through stills.

Task

RESEARCH: Elizabeth Castle and decide which particular aspects of its 1000 year history you wish to make into a short film of 3-5 mins – see below. Gather together research material, such as images, maps, documents, links to online sources and write a short synopsis of 300-500 words.

Research

Saint Helier:

The main town of Jersey is named after a Belgian monk called Helier.  He set up home in a cave on the high rock, which was later incorporated into the chapel, that was built in the 12th century, which now bear the names Hermitage Rock and Hermitage Chapel. Helier was killed by marauding pirates from Normandy in AD555 and later made a saint.

Military background:

Royalist forces held the Castle during the English Civil War when a mortar shell fired by Parliamentarian forces in St Helier crashed through the Priory roof, exploding 12 barrels of gunpowder stored there, badly damaging the building.

The first attempts to construct defences on the islet where Elizabeth Castle stands, were in 1550 and 1551, when orders were issued to build a gun battery to be garrisoned by six gunners. It is not clear, however, whether these works were ever undertaken or completed.

By the 16th century, cannon and gunpowder had become the dominant weapon of war. By the end of the century the principal castle on Jersey, Mont Orgueil, was out of date and vulnerable to bombardment from Mont St Nicholas. A new site was chosen on the small islet in St Aubin’s Bay and a new castle was built. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was Governor of Jersey between 1600 and 1603, chose the name Elizabeth Castle, after Queen Elizabeth I, and the name has been retained ever since.

Nazi’s invasion:

Elizabeth Castle remained in use up to and including the Second World War, when it was occupied by the Nazis. The occupation by the German forces commenced on 1st July 1940 and eventually ended on 9th May 1945 – Liberation Day. However, Elizabeth Castle was not handed back to the Island by the military until 19th May 1946. During this period the island was heavily fortified using Organisation Todt construction workers from various parts of Europe, including Russia and Spain.

Film research

Plan:

Final idea:

For our film, we decided to focus it on Saint Helier and his life. We plan to record the places where he is said to have lived, as well as locations he has said to have been, such as the hermitage rock. While showcasing the locations we plan to input a script explaining the details of his life from birth to death.

A main part of our plan is to try and create a somewhat spooky or unsettling atmosphere to captivate the audience by incorporating eerie music (dramatic church organs etc.) and using sound effects to emphasize certain points of the script.

Task

STORYBOARD: Develop a storyboard that provides you with a clear plan ahead of how you wish to make your 3-5 mins film, including shot sizes, camera angles, movement, lighting, individual scenes and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.

Task

VISUALS: Produce a mood-board of images that will inspire your visual language, style and aesthetic of your film. That can include found images of Elizabeth Castle and any other visual material, such as still-images from other filmmakers and films. See film, La Jétte by Chris Marker below.

Mood board